Boston is the apex of the modern-day sports world. Its franchises are well-oiled machines that produced a dozen championships over the past 20-plus years, and the success produced an unmistakable confidence and understandable swagger that was as commonplace as a parade of Duck Boats bringing trophies and legends through the city's clogged streets.
For newer and younger generations, the championships are nearly a birthright, but older fans remember a time when Boston-area teams struggled to find successful identities among the national landscape. Championship droughts were more common (aside from the Boston Celtics, at least), and fans in the city lived a more morose and downtrodden existence.